If the shift lever in the automatic transmission is at “P,” the parking lock is engaged, and prevents the vehicle from rolling away. The parking lock can be activated via a cable pull from the shift lever. With some automatic transmissions, the engagement and release takes place via an internal hydraulic control device. With some gear mechanisms in a parking lock unit, the actuation also takes place via electric motors. With these, an electric motor actuates the parking lock via a gear mechanism, and thus secures the vehicle so that it cannot roll, or releases it. Electrically actuated parking locks are used with an increasing number of autonomous driving functions, and electric vehicles. The function, “parking lock,” is a safety function and should continue to function when there is a full malfunction of all of the electric functions. Some technological solutions implement fallback mechanisms, which engage the parking lock via a spring, for example. However, this spring is tensioned when the parking lock is released. The tensioning of the spring significantly increases the performance demands on the actuator. This results in increased costs and larger space requirements.
On the basis of this background, the present invention provides an improved parking lock gear mechanism and an improved method for operating a parking lock gear mechanism. Advantageous designs can be derived from the following description.